Home-field advantage is gone

PORTLAND -- The only thing this game was good for was determining fourth place in the Greater Hartford Twilight Baseball League and home field advantage for KGA of Middletown to face the Newington Capitols again this Thursday.

KELLY-ANN FRANKLIN

Published
12:00 am EDT, Tuesday, August 7, 2001

So how interesting could it be?

The Capitols scored six runs in the eighth inning then held off KGA long enough to get that fourth spot with a 9-4 win at Bransfield Park Monday night.

KGA and Newington will play at McKenna Park in East Hartford at 5:45 p.m. Thursday in the first game of the playoffs.

KGA starter Matt Young took a 3-3 tie into the eighth after throwing well all game. But his troubles began when he allowed Steve Bennett to single home Marcus Hill for the Capitols' first lead of the night. Young had hit Kevin Beaudoin with a pitch and then he intentionally walked Inaki Ormaechea to load the bases.

On a pitch to Eric Urcivoli, Beaudoin got caught too far down the third base line and was easily run down by KGA catcher Jake Fournier. But Young intentionally walked Urcivoli and Brian Osterhanst singled to bring the lead to 8-3.

KGA coach Art D'Onofrio was forced to bring in Matt Guida to end the inning. Guida gave up an RBI single to the first batter he faced then got a ground out by Steve Haynes. With two more singles to Jay Landeen and Hill, it looked like Newington would bleed all the life out of Middletown.

But, for some reason, the Capitols allowed Landeen to stop between second and third on what looked to be an attempted steal and Guida jogged out to him for the tag.

Young allowed eight runs on seven hits and only struck out three. But two of those strikeouts came when he needed them the most. In the seventh, trying to hold the score tied, he struck out John Mayett and Haynes back-to-back before getting Landeen to ground into an easy out.

"I could've put pitchers in, but what was the sense?" D'Onofrio said. D'Onofrio's reasons for leaving Young in until the eighth was primarily to keep people fresh for Thursday night's match up against the same Capitols. He has all five of his starting pitchers back and his bench looked more like a reunion of old faces than of regular players.

"(Kevin) Rival is back with us again ..we have some key pitchers back, we have a lot of depth in pitching this year," D'Onofrio said.

Rival had been playing with the Eastern Tides out of Willimantic, who finished 24-16 with a wild card in the New England Collegiate Baseball League playoffs. Back with KGA, he led the team Monday with a 2-for-3 day, scoring a run and adding two RBI with a long home run over the 330 foot fence in left field in the fifth inning. His homer, which also scored Kurt Zemdian, gave KGA a 3-1 lead.

KGA's seventh inning was just as exciting as the Capitols eighth. After Steve Bartunek struck out to lead off, Rival singled and then stole second base. Young, who was forced to hit after being dh'd for all game, laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt in front of Capitols pitcher Jason Schuberth to move him over to third. Schuberth then intentionally walked Justin Waz to get to power-house Tim D'Aquila.

But Schuberth didn't want to pitch to D'Aquila either, opting instead to throw four straight pitches around the plate and walk him as well.

That brought up Jake Ruder who grounded into a fielder's choice and ended the threat.

Young, who was being dh'd for by Paul D'Onofrio, had to hit because shortstop Mark Fong was thrown out of the game in the fifth inning. The plate umpire called him out on strikes and, in disgust with the third called strike, swung the bat down towards the ground as he turned away and drew a line in the dirt.

Immediately, the umpire told him he was done.

Both Fong and coach D'Onofrio say Fong didn't say a word.

"I guess they had a disagreement over the pitch ..he didn't say anything to him," D'Onofrio said.

Schuberth, the driving force for the Capitols all game, did most of the work defensively when he struck out 11 while walking just three. Two of those were intentional and his only real base on balls came in the fourth inning after he had struck out D'Aquila and Ruder. He gave up six hits including a pair of doubles to Fournier who was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Fong, before he was ejected, had a run scored and two stolen bases.

In the bottom of the first, Fong led off with a soft bouncer to second baseman Hill. Hill, who made three errors in the game, bobbled the ball and let him reach without a throw. Fong then proceeded to steal second and then third on D'Aquila's at bat. D'Aquila then brought him home with a sacrifice fly to way-too-deep-for-a-throw right center field.